The four jobs this usually comes down to
Basement waterproofing around Saginaw, Bay City and Midland comes down to four jobs: exterior excavation, crack repair, interior drain tile and sump pumps. Which one fits depends on where the water enters and what the wall is doing, and the permit and discharge rules change from one city or township to the next.
There is a lot of product language in this trade. Stripped of it, there are four things a contractor can actually do to a wet basement, and the right one depends on where the water is entering and what the wall is doing.
A useful way to narrow it before anybody visits: go down during a long wet spell and look at where the floor meets the wall. Water arriving at that joint, or up through the floor drain, or through a crack in the slab, is coming from underneath, and that is a drainage and pump question. Water running down the inside face of a wall from higher up, or a wall that is bowing, leaning or cracking in a stair step pattern through the block joints, is a different problem and a more serious one.
Cost ranges for all four are on the costs page, kept separate from this one because the numbers come from trade sources rather than from anything local.
Whichever of these you end up buying, the Michigan licence question is the same, and it is worth two minutes: the state issues the maintenance and alteration licence in named crafts, and both "waterproofing a basement" and "excavation" are on that list. How to check it takes about as long as reading this paragraph.
Matching the water to the job
A thin line of water at one crack in a poured wall, with dry floor either side, usually points to crack injection and nothing more. Water along the whole cove joint, or a damp band across most of the floor after rain, means the footing drain is not doing its job, and that is interior drain tile or, less often, digging outside. A pit that already exists but cycles every few minutes, or a basement that stays dry until the power fails, is a pump problem. Water coming up through the floor drain after a storm is a sewer question first; and in Essexville, as anywhere in Michigan, a damage claim carries a 45 day written notice deadline.
The local part
The trade is the same across the valley, but three things change by address: who issues the permit, where groundwater may be piped, and how high the water table sits. A shoreline lot in Bangor Township and a 1960s house on the Cass River in Bridgeport can need the same pump and very different paperwork.
The town pages cover the part that changes by municipality, which is mostly about sewers, permits and who inspects the work.
- Exterior excavation Digging the wall down to the footing and sealing it from outside.
- Crack repair Injection for a leaking poured wall, and how to spot the cracks that mean more.
- Interior drain tile A channel around the inside footing, feeding a pit and a pump.
- Sump pumps The pump, the backup, and the discharge rule that changes by city.
Questions people ask
- Which waterproofing job does my basement need?
- Start with where the water shows. One leaking crack in a poured wall points to crack repair. Water along the wall and floor joint points to drain tile and a sump. A bowing or stair step cracked wall is a structural question to settle before any waterproofing.
- Is exterior excavation better than interior drain tile?
- Not automatically. Excavation stops water at the outside face of the wall but costs more and disturbs the yard. Interior tile manages water that has already reached the footing. Many valley basements with high groundwater are handled from inside.
- Does a waterproofing company need a state licence in Michigan?
- Michigan lists basement waterproofing and excavation among its maintenance and alteration licence crafts. The licence check page on this site explains how to look a company up on the state register in a couple of minutes.